David Fierro

Updated 11:32 pm, Saturday, December 28, 2013

Greenwich resident Michael Christie placed 25th in his age group at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. His top 25 finish earned him a spot in the Ironman World Longcourse Championship in China.
Photo: Contributed, Contributed

Greenwich resident Michael Christie placed 25th in his age group at...

Greenwich resident Michael Christie placed 25th in his age group at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. His top 25 finish earned him a spot in the Ironman World Longcourse Championship in China.

Greenwich resident Michael Christie placed 25th in his age group at...

Greenwich resident Michael Christie placed 25th in his age group at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. His top 25 finish earned him a spot in the Ironman World Longcourse Championship in China.
Photo: Contributed, Contributed

Winning his age group title in his inaugural Olympic distance triathlon three years ago came as a pleasant surprise to Michael Christie to say the least.

"After I won, I thought `that was interesting, it was probably just a fluke,' " said Christie, 57, a Cos Cob resident. "I was a runner, but the thing I was really strong at was swimming, so I decided to enter a few more events."

From there came numerous victories and a desire to raise the stakes.

"I won my age group (55-59 year-old) in every race but one or two," Christie said. "So I thought maybe there is something to this, so I started training more seriously."

Today, not too long after getting his start in triathlons, Christie is a battle-tested Ironman Triathlon competitor. Christie is training for several Ironman competitions -- one of which is the 2014 ITU World Longcourse Championship in Weihai, China in September. Christie earned a spot on Team USA for the World Longcourse Championship by placing 25th in the 55-59 year-old age group at October's Ironman World Championship in Hawaii.

"It is a huge honor and I'm looking forward to it," Christie said. "I recently received an email that said I qualified for the team, I thought, `Wow I can't believe this is happening.' "

Despite facing a day's worth of adversity, Christie finished the Ironman World Championship -- an event featuring a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run -- in an impressive time of 10 hours, 58 minutes. The trouble began for Christie when a spoke in one of the rear wheels of his bike broke approximately 10 miles into the race.

"I thought I had a flat tire, I got off my bike my tires were fine, I go to spin my wheel and it won't spin," Christie said. "There are hundreds of people going by me and I'm standing on the side of the road. All the bike support vehicles were out with the pros, the lead pack, so I decided to see if I could ride with a broken wheel."

He began riding and completed the bike portion of the Ironman. For the race, his bike time was 5 hours, 46 minutes, his swim finish was 59 minutes and his run was 4 hours, 4 minutes.

"I disconnected my rear breaks, the wheel was banging against the side of the frame, but I was rolling and rode with this broken wheel for 103 miles," Christie said. "It was vibrating and making noise, so that slowed me down on my ride, but I was able to finish it, which I was thrilled by."

While at the Ironman World Championship, Christie made sure to savor every moment of his journey.

"When you do something like that it's the pinnacle, it's like being in the Super Bowl," Christie said. "Instead of attending the event you are in it with the best competitors in the world. That was the one race everyone who is a triathlete wants to be in, so it was an honor and a privilege to be there. It was everything I thought it would be and more."

A native of Huntington, N.Y., where he grew up swimming and playing lacrosse, Christie leaves each Ironman well aware of what the hardest portion of the race is.

"Having to run a marathon after riding for five and a half hours is very tough," he said. "Swimming is a warm-up for me, it's the easy part. Cycling is new to me and is also a challenge. I had no idea I would be proficient at this and had the ability to do it."

Christie's foray into the triathlete/fitness business began not long ago.

"When I was 50 I received a wakeup call," he said. "I was 40 pounds heavier than I am now and I couldn't fit into any of my suits, so I decided it was time to get back into shape and started training for marathons."

The pounds came off once Christie began running, but so did some muscle, so his wife Sarah made a helpful suggestion.

"I was starting to get a marathoner's body, so she told me I should try swimming and bike riding in addition to running and that's how I pretty much began cross training," Christie said.

After spending 25 years working on Wall Street for Merrill Lynch and his own firm, Christie retired from the financial world and soon began a new challenge. He dedicated the majority of his time training for triathlons and easily won his age group title in his first competition -- the Litchfield Triathlon -- by more than 30 minutes.

Successful at all of the triathlons he participated in, Christie enlisted the help of trainer Steve Kurczewski of Elite Health Services in Old Greenwich to prepare him for the Ironman Couer d'Alene in Idaho -- his first Ironman event, held in 2012.

"Steve did such a good job of preparing for my first Ironman," Christie said. "He showed me how to train efficiently and get enough rest in between. He helped me accumulate a lot of knowledge when it comes to training and coaching."

Recording a first-place finish in his age group at the Ironman in Idaho made Christie eligible for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii and sparked his interest for helping others improve their conditioning.

Soon after becoming a certified personal trainer, Christie began working at Elite Health Services as a triathlon coach and trainer.

"It was a little scary at first because it was a life-changing thing for me," said Christie, whose sons Sam, George and Ollie and daughter Emma, each graduated from Greenwich High School. "But I have an amazing support system, starting with my wife, who encouraged me to make it my profession."

Indeed, Christie looks forward to each day at work at EHS.

"I love trying to help people move better, lose weight, feel stronger and just get healthier, it's really satisfying," said Christie, who will also compete in an Ironman in Lake Placid in July. "I told my wife, this is not like work for me."